Line Symbols

Line symbols such as ─ │ ━ ┃ ═ ║ are single characters that join edge to edge, so they build dividers, vertical separators and text bars. Click one to take it, repeat a horizontal stroke for a rule of any length, or close a box with ┌ ┐ └ ┘.

Copy and Paste Line Symbols

A line symbol is one character, so a single click gives you one short stroke — ─ rather than a rule across the screen. Length comes from repetition, and that is the part most pages leave out: ─, ━ and ═ are drawn edge to edge with no side gaps, so repeating one produces an unbroken straight line at any width, while ┄ and ┈ keep their gaps however many you paste. Click a character above to copy it, then paste it as many times as the line needs — the whole of line symbols copy and paste is that one repetition.

What Are Line Symbols?

Line symbols are Unicode characters whose printed shape is a stroke — horizontal, vertical, or a corner where two strokes meet. They come from two neighbouring ranges: box drawing at U+2500 to U+257F, and block elements at U+2580 to U+259F. Both were inherited from the character sets terminals used to draw windows, frames and menus before screens could render graphics. They are ordinary text symbols, so a line in text takes the colour, size and font of whatever surrounds it and travels between apps the way a letter does. Nothing here is an image, which is why a line symbol survives a copy paste into a field that would reject one.

That is what separates them from the three keys people reach for first. A hyphen is punctuation with space built in on each side, so a row of them reads as dashes; an underscore sits on the baseline instead of through the middle of the row; the pipe key is a shorter stroke than │ and was never meant to stack with anything above or below it. Box-drawing characters were designed to join, which is why they look continuous where the keyboard substitutes look broken.

How to Use Line Symbols

Copying Line Symbols

Click any character in the grid above and it goes straight to your clipboard. Nothing is added around it — you get the bare character, which is what you want when it has to sit inside a sentence or repeat cleanly.

Pasting Line Symbols Into Apps

Ctrl+V on Windows and Linux, Cmd+V on Mac, long-press and Paste on a phone. Because these are text rather than images, they go anywhere text goes: a profile bio, a spreadsheet header, a chat message, a document, a filename, even a search box.

Drawing Longer Line Symbols

To get a rule rather than a dash, paste the same character repeatedly: ────────── or ━━━━━━━━━━. Copy ten, then double the result twice and you have forty in three keystrokes. Mixing widths inside one run is what makes a line look ragged, so pick ─ or ━ or ═ and stay with it for the whole rule.

Types of Line Symbols

Horizontal Line Symbols

The straight horizontal set runs ─ light, ━ heavy and ═ double. All three sit at the vertical middle of the row, which is why they read as a rule through the text rather than an underline beneath it.

Vertical Line Symbols

The same three weights stand upright as │, ┃ and ║. A vertical line symbol is the usual way to separate items on one row — │ between links, ┃ where the divide should carry more weight than the words on either side of it.

Dashed and Dotted Line Symbols

Broken strokes are graded by how many dashes fit in one character. Two dashes give ╌ and ╍, three give ┄ and ┅, four give the finest ┈ and ┉. Each has an upright twin — ╎ ╏, ┆ ┇, ┊ ┋ — so a dashed border can turn a corner without changing texture.

Double and Heavy Line Symbols

Heavy and double are two different ways to say emphasis. ━ and ┃ are one thick stroke; ═ and ║ are two thin strokes with a gap between them. Heavy suits headers and dividers, double suits frames, where the twin strokes read as a formal border rather than a bold one.

Box Corner Line Symbols

Corners close a shape. The light set gives ┌ ┐ └ ┘ and the double set gives ╔ ╗ ╚ ╝, each matching the straight character of the same weight. Junctions extend a frame inwards: ├ and ┤ open a side, ┬ and ┴ split a top or bottom edge, ┼ crosses in the middle, and ╠ ╣ ╦ ╩ ╬ do the same in double weight. ╭ ╮ ╰ ╯ round the turn off, and the heavy set ┏ ┓ ┗ ┛ matches ━ and ┃ the way the light set matches ─ and │. The block also carries every mixed-weight joint, so a thick frame can meet thin dividers inside it without a visible break.

Block and Shade Line Symbols

Block elements are the thick end of the range. █ is a filled cell, ▀ and ▄ fill the top or bottom half, ▌ and ▐ fill the left or right half, and ░ ▒ ▓ fill it with progressively denser texture. Two ladders sit underneath: ▁ ▂ ▃ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ grows upward from the baseline in eighths, and ▏ ▎ ▍ ▌ ▋ ▊ ▉ █ grows rightward from the left edge. Those ladders are what makes a bar drawn in text rise smoothly instead of jumping a whole character at a time.

Best Uses for Line Symbols

Line Symbols in Bios and Profiles

A short run of ─ between sections of a bio does the work of a blank line in a field that collapses blank lines, and it is the plainest separator available — no ornament, nothing to clash with the words around it. That restraint is the whole aesthetic: a thin rule reads as deliberate spacing where a decorative character reads as decoration. │ is the compact version for a single row: name │ city │ link. Keep the run shorter than you think — a rule that reaches the edge of a narrow column wraps and stops looking like a rule.

Line Symbols as Text Borders

A frame is four corners and two straight characters: ┌─┐ on top, │ down each side, └─┘ underneath, or the same shape in ╔ ═ ╗ ║ ╚ ╝ for a double border. Ready-made frames at several widths are on the cool borders page if you would rather not count characters.

Line Symbols as Progress and Level Bars

Filled and shaded blocks make a bar that works in plain text: █ for the filled part and ▒ or ░ for the rest. The eighth-width characters let the boundary land between cells rather than on one. Assembled bars at fixed percentages are on the loading patterns page.

Line Symbols in Documents and Code

In a comment block, a monospace file or a terminal, these characters do what they were designed for — section rules, tree diagrams built from ├ └ │, and table frames that hold their shape because every character is exactly one cell wide. ASCII art has to approximate a line with hyphens and pipes; box drawing gives you the real stroke, which is why diagrams built from it read as drawn rather than typed.

Line Symbols Unicode Names and Codes

Every character here has a descriptive Unicode name, and the names are literal: ─ is U+2500 Box Drawings Light Horizontal, ┃ is U+2503 Box Drawings Heavy Vertical, ═ is U+2550 Box Drawings Double Horizontal, ┌ is U+250C Box Drawings Light Down and Right. Blocks follow the same pattern — █ is U+2588 Full Block, ░ U+2591 Light Shade, ▁ U+2581 Lower One Eighth Block. Each tile in the grid above shows its own code.

These characters also have Alt codes on Windows, which is unusual for Unicode and comes from their origins in the original PC character set. Hold Alt and type on the numeric keypad: 196 for ─, 179 for │, 205 for ═, 186 for ║, 218 for ┌, 219 for █, 176 for ░, 177 for ▒, 178 for ▓. On Linux, Ctrl+Shift+U followed by 2500 and Enter gives ─. Mac has no numeric equivalent — the Character Viewer, opened with Ctrl+Cmd+Space, is the route there. In HTML, ─ renders ─ and █ renders █.

Frequently Asked Questions About Line Symbols

How do I make a long straight line symbol?

Repeat one character. ─, ━ and ═ join edge to edge, so ten of them make a continuous rule and twenty make a longer one. There is no single character that stretches — width always comes from how many you paste.

Why do my line symbols not line up?

Because the font is proportional. Box-drawing characters were designed for monospace, where every character occupies the same width and a frame stays square from row to row. In a proportional font each row is measured by its own contents, so a box drawn across several lines comes out crooked even though every character is correct. A single-row divider is unaffected — it is only multi-row shapes that need a monospace font or a code block.

What is the difference between ─ and a hyphen?

A hyphen is punctuation and carries space on either side, so repeating it gives - - - - with visible gaps. ─ is a drawing character with no side space, so repeating it gives an unbroken line. The same applies to │ against the pipe key, which is a shorter stroke that does not connect vertically.

Is there a line emoji?

No. There are no line emojis. Every character on this page is a text symbol — it inherits your text colour and size rather than arriving as a coloured picture the way emojis do. That is exactly why a line symbol works in a CV, a spreadsheet header or a printed document, where an emoji would look out of place.

Why does a line symbol show as a box or a question mark?

The font in use has no glyph for that character. Box drawing and block elements are supported almost everywhere, so this is rare, but it does happen in some older apps and custom display fonts. ─ │ ═ ║ █ are the safest choices; the eighth-width blocks are the ones most likely to be missing.

Which line symbol should I use as a divider?

─ for something quiet, ━ when the break should be obvious, ═ when it should look formal. If you want a divider with an ornament in the middle rather than a plain rule, the cool dividers page has them assembled.

Related Collections for Line Symbols

For frames and rules already built to width, see cool borders and cool dividers; for bars made from the block characters, loading patterns. Bracket symbols enclose text where a full box is too much, and arrow symbols point along a line you have drawn. Everything else is on the symbol collections index.